The box I cobbled together from old pallets, dirt is a mix of potting soil and local dirt spiced with chicken poo.
For the more observant viewers, you may notice that the closest ‘V’ is slimmer than the upper square – the pallets were a little short. I plan to plant smaller vegetables in those areas.
It looks like you measured from the outside of the box. The square feet areas are supposed to be just the dirt. If you cheat them in a little to even them out the planting will still work fine.
I’m new to this because this just popped up on my feed. But I’ve been wanting to get into some gardening and have a handful of pallets…any recommended reads?
Op was referring to the square foot gardening method, you can read more about it and the book here: https://squarefootgardening.org/ There are tons of YouTube videos and blogs writing about it too, if you prefer that over a book
Thank you!
Nicely done! I like to use this tool to drag and drop plants into a cell to get an idea of how many I can plant.
Oh! Nice, Thank you!
Even with the square foot method you can get some extra efficiency. Plant some radishes and carrots together. Plant some sunflowers and peas/beans together. A lettuce or two with a tomato.
Repurposed pallette wood?
Yes. I had a friend that was able to get me a few for free.
From what I understand, that’s dangerous for gardens. Old pallets have likely been subjected to some of the most dangerous carcinogenic chemicals over their life.
Depends heavily on what the pallets were for; many (realistically, probably the vast majority) pallets are disposable, and haven’t been treated because it’s not worth the cost
That’s an incredibly dangerous assumption.
Doesn’t matter if it’s treated or not, you don’t know what was spilt on it. Lots of stores have dangerous chemicals. Walmart has pool chemical and motor oil….
Don’t trivialize something just because you aren’t educated. There’s a reason why people are trying to speak up about it, and than someone like you goes and perpetuates this absolute bullshit.
Absolute bullshit seems a little harsh. Are you referring to evidence that this is actually a thing, or is this just something that someone realized could technically happen and decided it was worth spreading fear and credit for the attention?
Of course stuff could spill on a pallet, but the number/percent of pallets that actually get reused like this as a cross section of pallet loads of stuff that are damaged, with a further cross section of things that are damaged and dangerously poisonous and don’t make the wood look or smell odd has got to be in the ballpark of odds of getting hit by a bus.
Just because something is plausible doesn’t mean everyone should take the risk as a certainly, just like the possibility of getting hit by a bus should keep everyone on their side of the street.
I agree that it’s a bit of fear mongering but it’s for a garden that will be growing food for years. To use your analogy, the chance of being hit by a bus when crossing the street is tiny, but I still look both ways because of the tiny possibility that a vehicle is going to run a red light.
I’ll add it to my microbiome of plastic.
Even just pressure treated wood is not recommended for veggie use.
The soil and water will leech chemicals out of wood and your veggies that you eat will absorb it.
I hate seeing all these crafts and people bringing the stuff in their houses, unless you source the pallets from someone trustworthy, they could have oil spilt on it for all you know.
Wood treated with Copper Azole is safe for garden beds. We’ve pretty much stopped using arsenic based compounds to treat wood. And plants don’t tend to pull in copper (it’s even used in some pesticides sprayed directly onto plants)
May not apply in your country*
And people use reclaimed wood all the time, unless you source it yourself, you have no idea unless the rating is still legible.
Also, some people avoid pesticides, so they would also want to avoid it in their frames too.
And plants don’t tend to pull in copper (it’s even used in some pesticides sprayed directly onto plants)
Copper is an essential plant macronutrient, so that’s just plain bullshit.
No more than they normally do. They’ve done studies on this. There’s no extra copper in the plants due to the presence of this pressure treatment on the wood using copper azole
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Uhh… you realize chemicals are vastly different than non harmful bug guts… yeah?
This may shock you, but you can actually Buy chocolate coated insects!!!… so “dangerous”…
Using these materials can actually be seriously harmful for your health. Don’t try to trivialize something you can’t comprehend.
Why do you seem to lean into the ‘can’t comprehend’ angle? Someone could not be as worried about something as you are without being incapable of comprehending it.
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4-6% of pre-ground coffee is cockroach
Shenanigans
It could be worse or possibly extremely dangerous. Micro plastics are only a concern because we don’t know what long term effects they have.
On the other hand the arsenic used for wood treatment is dangerous enough that the USDA bans it for farms. Plus there’s the risk of really dangerous stuff having spilled on pallets over the years like benzene.
Even a pallet from Walmart, motor oil or pool chemical spill on it, no way of knowing.
There is some places that do one time pallet use and wouldn’t be at risk, but I don’t think the majority of people are sourcing those.
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Some people like to avoid ALL chemicals they can in their garden.
You can also just line the wood with plastic and it’s moot, but as a generic basic around the globe advice.
Dont use pallets or treated wood for crafts and stuff in your home.
CCA is banned for lumber designed for ground contact construction. Pallet wood has no restrictions. Pallets use in shipping means you don’t even know what country it came from.
Stuff like telephone poles still use it I believe. At least in Canada. Railroad ties too likely.
This is so cool! What do you plan to plant? You should add some mint and green onions.
My first batch will be some spring onions, radishes, and leaf lettuce.
Mint, on the other hand, I have in a pot in the house and will likely stay in that pot for the season (unless I get a bigger pot for it), it likes to wander here and would likely take over my garden.
No likely about it, mint is a weed. Great for fresh mint, not so great if you want to contain or get rid of it.
That sounds great! Radishes with a little salt are great.
Mint, on the other hand, I have in a pot in the house and will likely stay in that pot for the season (unless I get a bigger pot for it), it likes to wander here and would likely take over my garden.
But that’s the fun!
But that’s the fun!
Agent of chaos, eh? Or are you sentient mint building your terrestrial army?
I was going to say, “That sounds like heresy to me.” But you beat me to it.
I’m just someone who likes seeing my plants thrive :)
and kill all the others and continue on to take over other living bodies
@Vertelleus Nature doesn’t know rectangles 😉
Nature may not, but it may help me organize plant based on spacing required 😉
@Vertelleus It’s a form of gardening I didn’t see for decennia. Never raised beds. Never planted on spacing required. If there is a gap in the bed, I plant something in it. Plants love companions and I just look on the rules of mixed culture. A bed is never empty, when it is cleared I sow or plant something at once.
I was going by this:
https://squarefootgardening.org/I used to love watching Square Foot Gardening on PBS in the 80’s. Some videos are on YouTube.
